The same year, Assonitis was brought in by Warner Bros. to executive produce Piranha II: The Spawning, replacing Jeff Schechtman. Miller Drake, who had been hired by Schechtman to co-write the film with Charles H. Eglee and to direct the film, however Assonitis removed Miller from the project and hired Rob Bottin to direct. Bottin had already been hired to do the special effects of the film, but soon left to work on The Thing. James Cameron was then hired and rewrote the script with Eglee and Assonitis under the pseudonym H.A Milton. After the first week of shooting, the set harmony was disturbed by some discussions about the work between the director and the producers (Assonitis, asked to verify the day-to-day activities, arguing with most of Cameron's choices), so while Cameron was only responsible for the shooting, most of the decisions were under Assonitis' authority. The film was released through Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures and was a modest financial success. Assonitis continued to produce throughout the 1980s with the films, Choke Canyon an action film starring Stephen Collins, Janet Julian, Bo Svenson and Lance Henriksen about a scientist trying to develop an alternative energy source while being pursued by an evil corporation; and the Miles O'Keeffe sword and sorcery film Iron Warrior distributed by Orion Pictures. Trans World Entertainment In 1987, Assonitis signed a multi-picture deal with Trans World Entertainment, then run by Moshe Diamant and Eduard Sarlui. The first of the films to be produced was The Farm, released as The Curse, a science-fiction horror film starring Wil Wheaton and Claude Akins, based on H. P. Lovecraft's short story The Colour Out of Space The film earned $1,169,922 from its opening weekend, and finished with a gross of $1,930,001 at the box office.The film also sold considerably well on home video. Over the next two years, Assonitis produced three more pictures under the deal, Sonny Boy, starring Paul L. Smith, David Carradine and Brad Dourif; The Bite and Amok Train. The Bite and Amok Train were later retitled as Curse II: The Bite and Beyond the Door III respectively to capitalise on the success of the previous films. Cannon Pictures Inc. In 1989, he became chairman the newly relaunched Cannon Pictures Inc. Assonitis was hired by Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti after the departure of former chairman Menahem Golan and the restructuring of The Cannon Group, then renamed